In today’s talking points Asian shares slip despite upbeat Japanese economic data, China private equity funds suffer wave of closures, World Bank appoints CBA for first bond deal on blockchain and Alibaba may merge food delivery units to step up battle against rival
Asian shares slip despite upbeat Japanese economic data
Despite the growth of Japan’s GDP (1.9% annual expansion, up from 0.6% contractions in previous quarters), Asian shares are lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index lost 1.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1%, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3%, and Australia’s S&P ASX lost 0.2%.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.9%, India’s Sensex lost 0.3%, and shares were lower in Thailand and Singapore.
Source: Finance Yahoo
China private equity funds suffer wave of closures
A record number of Chinese private equity and hedge funds have dissolved in recent months as new regulations limit their fundraising.
In the first six months of this year, the Asset Management Association of China (Amac) — a government-controlled industry body — “lost contact” with 163 private fund institutions, more than 70 per cent of the total for which contact was lost for 2017.
Of these 163 private funds, more than 70 per cent are private equity or venture capital funds, according to an analysis of Amac data by National Business Daily, a Shanghai-based newspaper. The others are mostly hedge funds that invest in publicly traded securities.
Source: Financial Times
World Bank appoints CBA for first bond deal on blockchain
In an attempt to advance the transparency and cost-effectiveness of debt capital issuance, the World Bank has turned to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to help them issue a bond using blockchain technology.
Aptly dubbed the “bond-i”, the World Bank says this is the first security worldwide where blockchain has been used for its creation, allocation, transfer of ownership and management.
The World Bank chose CBA as it believes Australia is a world leader in blockchain technology, and the government is known to be interested in the advancing the use of these technologies.
The deal shows how fast blockchain has moved from research and development and a pilot phase to real world, market applications.
Source: AFR
Alibaba may merge food delivery units to step up battle against rival
The rivalry between Alibaba Group and Meituan Dianping on dominating China’s on-service market has increased, with Alibaba Group potentially merging its delivery units together.
It has been suggested that if Alibaba merges its services into a single platform it will be able to compete with Tencent backed platform, Meituan.
Third parties expect that the fundraising for this merge will start later this year.
Source: Shine.cn